


Open House

by Stratagem



Series: Lion Cub [18]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Coran being a great grandpa, Family meeting, Gen, Grumpy Kid, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 08:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11078136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stratagem/pseuds/Stratagem
Summary: Team Voltron has a Family Meeting that ends in Emi snatching a whole plate of cookies and storming out of the room. Coran braves the wrath of a ten-year-old to try and convince her that maybe trying something new will be less scary than she thinks.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron!
> 
> A/N: The Castle of Lions is ginormous and has so many rooms, why not invite more people to live there? Except Emi is NOT ON BOARD with this idea. Sometimes it's hard having warrior-diplomat parents and a family of universe-savers. Also, this is the first time, I think, that I'm really writing from Emi's POV, so this should be, er, interesting? She's ten years old in this one. Wish me luck! It's a two-parter. ^_^

Emi knew something was wrong the moment she stepped into the rec room.

One, everyone else was already there. Normally at least Lance or Pidge showed up late to Family Meetings, but this time all of the adults were on time. Not a good. They only would've come on time if the conversation was deemed actually important.

Two, the only food on the table was a platter of her favorite cookies and a carafe of milk. Usually when they had official meetings, Hunk made all sorts of stuff. Not just her favorite.

Three, everyone got quiet and turned to stare at her when she came in.

Oh no.

Emi was holding her calico munchkin cat, Haru, and she squeezed him, burying her face in his short fur as her mind whirred through possibilities. They had definitely found out about that spacewalk she had taken without permission last week, and now she was going to be raked over the hot coals of family overprotectiveness and scolding. Maybe she could run? If she made it all the way to Black's hangar, there was a very small chance she could convince the lion to hide her somewhere.

In cases like this, she had found that it was better to just be quiet instead of opening her mouth and getting herself into more trouble by confessing too early. Her dad always got her to do that, and it was _so_ annoying.

So she schooled her face into a calm, innocent expression and looked up. What she saw was almost worse than a roomful of disapproving looks.

They were all smiling at her. Tensely.

"What's going on?" she said, looking at her parents, "Why are you guys being weird?"

"See, I told you," Lance said to Shiro, losing the smile and dropping onto the couch.

So maybe this wasn't about the spacewalk. She hugged Haru closer, then sat him on the ground once he started wriggling. He flicked his tail and waddled off to jump on the back of the couch, where Hunk reached up and started scratching the cat's chin.

"Come in, my girl," Coran said, gesturing her over. There was a spot right beside him, which happened to be right in front of the cookies and milk.

Emi slunk over to sit down cross-legged beside Coran. She leaned into his arm and narrowed her eyes at her extremely suspicious parental units. "No, seriously, what's going on."

"Nothing's wrong," her dad said quickly, and if possible, she narrowed her eyes even more. She hadn't asked if anything was wrong, which meant something was _definitely_ wrong.

Mum rested her hand on Dad's knee and smiled more gently, so it didn't look like her smile was about to bust her face in two. "We've all been talking about some possible changes that might occur around the Castle."

Emi kept her mouth shut, wondering where her mother was going with this.

"You see, sweetheart, part of the Castle's original purpose was to act as a diplomatic space station, as well as the base for Voltron," Mum explained, "It was intended to be a place where people from all over the universe could exchange information about their various societies and cultures in a neutral location."

Okay, yeah, she basically already knew that. It's sort of what they did anyways. They traveled the universe, cleared out remaining Galra threats, and built alliances. Nowadays, there weren't as many Galra resistance groups left, but they still tracked down ones that popped up.

So she continued to stay silent.

"When I was a girl, that was how the Castle was run," Mum said, "People from so many different planets lived here, and there were all sorts of discussions and lectures and lessons. We all learned to appreciate each other's cultures and societies, leading to a better understanding of the universe as a whole. It was great fun!"

Hold on just a moment there. Emi sat up straighter, looking around the room. Had no one else picked up on the whole 'lived here' part of that? As in, other people used to live in the Castle? Since she had been born, it had only been Emi and her family who lived in the Castle. Sure, some people stayed there on and off, like when Slav had spent a few months camping out, taking up one whole floor for himself. But they didn't stay _long_.

Her ears twitched, flicking a little in agitation.

Mum and Dad looked at each other, and Dad took her Mum's hand, which was another not-good sign. They were a united front in whatever they were about to say. Emi glanced up at Coran, and he patted her shoulder, encouraging but also not on her side.

"We're considering opening up the Castle to other families and people," her dad said, "It's more peaceful now, and it would help everyone to have a place to talk about universal and galactic matters."

Emi jerked her head back, bumping it against Coran's arm. What, nope, no way, no. This was their house, it wasn't an intergalactic hotel. It was her _home_.

"It'd be cool," Pidge said, "We could exchange all sorts of tech and improve the functionality of the spacenet from a central location."

"And there would be other kids your age around," Hunk said, nudging the plate of cookies toward her, "That'd be neat, right? Lots of new friends…"

She was not going to be won over by cookies. Or new friends. She didn't need new friends, she had some. Like a handful.

"It'll make organizing all the allied rebellion units easier if they had somewhere to send permanent liaisons," Keith said.

Emi shot him a betrayed look. He should've been on her side in all of this. It wasn't like he liked crowds, either.

"It won't be for long, Nezumi-chan," Dad said, "Only a year or so while they work on the space station."

Right, the massive space station that they were building out in the Resari Galaxy. It was supposed to be a place where people could gather from all over now that the Galra Empire was defeated, but Emi didn't think that meant they had to prepare for that by turning their spaceship-house into a dormitory. She liked new people, but only in small doses.

"And there would be places on the ship that would be restricted access, of course," Mum said, a worried look on her face as she watched Emi closely. "Some of the upper floors, the bridge, the hangars. We'll be the only ones allowed in those places."

"And this rec room," Lance said, "This is ours, nobody else's." He smiled at her, and she looked away. She didn't feel like smiling or agreeing or anything.

"Most of the people staying would be official diplomats and their families," Dad said, "So you'd already know some of them."

"You might find out you like it," Coran said. He looped an arm around her and gave her a half-hug, but she stayed rigid.

For a few awkward minutes, no one said anything, and Emi attempted to glare a hole into the floor. Too bad she couldn't morph laser eyes. If she had been younger, she would have definitely morphed some Galra fangs and maybe Galra ears. In honor of Keith, that had been her go-to angry morph when she was little. But she was ten, and anger took on a different nature now.

"Emi, please say something," her dad said.

She scooted off the couch and crossed her arms over her chest, flicking her eyes at him then her mother. "I don't want to. You already all made up your minds anyways."

"Well, I do suppose that's true, in a way, but we still want you to feel comfortable with it and talk about the situation." Her mum moved to the edge of the couch, reaching toward Emi. "We want your opinion as well."

No, they didn't, not really. They just wanted her to go along with it. But nope, Emi wasn't going to be comforted by a hug, and she wasn't going to give them the answer she wanted. She pretended that her mum wasn't trying to hug her and took a step back. It wasn't fair, being the youngest and not having a real say. Frustration bubbled up within her and came out of her mouth in the form of hot, furious words.

"I hate it. I hate the whole idea, and if you let other people live here, I'm going to go live somewhere else. Somewhere _really_ far away."

Her dad frowned. "Emi…"

"I mean it! Far far away!" She clenched her fists and started for the door, then turned around and grabbed the plate of cookies from the table. With a final scowl, she marched out of the room, Haru following behind her.

As the doors closed behind her, she heard Lance give a tired laugh. "Wellll, that went great."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo I do believe that Coran would be the most awesome grandpa ever…

The cookies were good. Really good. But Emi wished she had taken the carafe of milk too because she was getting pretty thirsty and there wasn't anything to drink in Black's hangar bay. In Green's hangar, Pidge had an entire science lab set up in a corner and there was a mini-fridge. Too bad that whole set-up was in another tower of the Castle.

Emi nibbled on a cookie as she sat on the bridge of Black's nose. The lion had bent down and let her climb up when she had stormed into the hangar, prickly with aggravation. For a while, she had flopped across Black's head and calmed down, letting the cool metal leech away her anger. Once she was less likely to kick something, she had slid back down to Black's nose and started eating cookies.

Also, she had been ranting to the lion on and off since she had arrived.

"What if we have to move rooms? My room's all decorated, I don't wanna take everything down and move it." The likelihood of that happening was slim, especially since her dad had said it was temporary and her mom had been very clear that parts of the ship would be off limits, but still. What if? "Can I move into your hangar if they try to move my room? I won't take up much space."

Black sent back a fuzzy feeling of amusement, and Emi tapped against the lion's nose. "It's not funny, I'm not kidding…"

The doors to the hangar bay whooshed open. Emi flattened herself against Black's nose, knowing that it was her parents coming to convince her that they were right and she was wrong. She didn't feel like arguing with them, now or ever. Maybe if she stayed super quiet, they wouldn't find her. Black might give her away, though, if dad asked her to.

"Hello there, Black Lion! Haven't seen a darling little creature, about this tall, rather grouchy right now? She stole all the cookies and didn't even leave a crumb for this hungry dashing man."

Not her parents. Emi slid over and peeked over at Coran. He was wandering around the hangar bay, his hands on his hips as he peered around the corners of the massive room. She took a bite of her cookie, one arm draped over the edge of Black's bright red nose. While hiding from her parents was one thing, hiding from Coran was completely different, especially if he just wanted cookies. That could be a trap, though. He probably wanted to talk about the whole castle-as-hotel thing. He seemed like the idea and would want her to like it too.

Well, that was too bad because she was never, ever, **ever** going to like it.

"Ah, there she is."

Emi glanced down to see Coran standing underneath her, shielding his eyes as he peered up at her. She blinked and slowly slid back, pulling her arm up onto Black's nose. Rolling over onto her back, she pretended that she hadn't seen Coran and he hadn't seen her. It made her feel a little bad, but she crushed that feeling by picking up a cookie and nudging it over the side of the lion. There.

Now he had a cookie.

"Are you throwing food at me now?"

Emi responded by nudging another cookie over the edge. Go on, Coran.

"Jokes on you, my dear, I'm just going to stand here while you rain down delicious delectables until you're out."

Sighing, she peeked over the edge again, her braid trailing over her shoulder and into the open space. Coran was still there, munching on the second cookie. Apparently he hadn't caught the first one, since there was a smashed pile of crumbles on the floor beside him.

"I don't want to talk about it," Emi said petulantly.

"No one said anything about talking, did they?" Coran said, his mouth full of cookie. He went back toward the door then lifted up a carafe full of milk, a couple mugs hanging from his pinky finger. "I just thought you might want this."

A moment later, Black lowered her head to the ground and Emi reached a hand out. "Thank you."

Coran grinned as he gave her the carafe and then stepped on top of Black's head at well. He sat down beside Emi and patted the lion as she raised back up into a sitting position. "Thanks, milady." He poured milk into the two mugs he had brought and sipped at his own while Emi drained half of her own mug.

"It's really sweet," she said, glancing at the milk. Now that she was paying attention, it did have a faintly purple tinge to it.

"It's hekronian milk from the moons of Astoria," Coran said, "We've had it before, I believe."

Emi honestly couldn't remember, but then again, she had tasted food from dozens of planets and moons during her short ten years of life. It was quite possible she had had this before. She slowed down to enjoy the sweet cream-like flavor, her blue eyes flicking toward Coran.

It seemed like he wasn't going to bring up the meeting. Which was weird because she just assumed he'd want to talk about it.

"I'm not going to change my mind."

"All right."

Emi watched Coran closely, but he simply snacked on his own cookie. "You know, it would be a nice view up here if there was an observation window. It wouldn't be that hard to install one."

"Yeah…" Fiddling with another cookie, she broke off little bits of it and floated them in her milk. She flicked a piece of cookie off of Black's hull. "I don't want other people to live here. I like it just being us."

"I know, darling, you made your point quite clear," Coran said, giving her a gentle smile even as her face grew hot with embarrassment. Maybe that hadn't been the best way to tell them all she didn't like the idea. "But there are so many unused places in this castle, it'd be grand to have people visit."

"They're not visiting, they're going to live here," Emi said miserably. She sighed and laid down on the bridge of Black's nose, resting her chin on her folded arms.

Coran leaned back, resting his weight on his hands and crossing his legs at the ankle. "Yes, but not for long, so that's quite a lot like visiting." He looked over at her, violet eyes meeting blue. "Emi…don't you get lonely sometimes?"

Emi shook her head. "Nope, never."

"Truly?" Coran gave a low whistle and shook his head. "Because I think that might be at least a part of the reason why we all think it's a magnificent idea."

She made a face. "I'm _not_ lonely. I've got you and Mum and Dad and everyone. And the lions. And my friends from school."

"You only regularly see your schoolmates in the holoroom."

"Yeah, but I still see them." Emi snagged another cookie and shoved it in her mouth even though she didn't really want to eat another cookie. She also wanted a reason to not talk about her school friends and how she wished she could go actually see them in person more often. She _wasn't_ lonely. She played with all sorts of other kids on practically every planet they visited, and she had friends back on Earth.

"Many of the diplomats would have children, and quite a few might be around your age," Coran said, "You need to be around other children, my little juniberry blossom."

"But I'm okay," Emi said, shaking her head, "I like everything the way it is."

"And how do you know for sure that you won't enjoy something new?"

"That's _a lot_ of new," she protested, "It's not like we're just letting one more person live here. You all made it sound like a loooot of people."

"Well, it would be quite a few," Coran said, reaching up and tugging at his moustache, "But that just gives everyone more people to talk to. More interaction and exchanging ideas!"

Emi sighed and dropped her forehead onto her arms. "I'm tired of sharing."

"Mmm?" She felt Coran's hand on the back of her head, giving her ponytail a tug. "I can't hear you."

She forced herself to sit up. "I don't…" She played with the edge of her sock, wondering exactly how she wanted to word how she felt. "I always have to share everyone. I don't mind, but I like that I don't have to share as much when we're on the Castle."

She had gotten used to sharing her family when she was little. People needed her parents, her aunt and uncles, her grandpa. They needed them for meetings and battles and negotiations and galactic policy discussions. They needed them to save the universe and protect it and keep people safe. She had been attending diplomatic talks with her mother since her birth, and she had always known her father was a warrior who would sacrifice himself for others. She lived on a spaceship dedicated to keeping the universe out of the hands of a dictatorship and watched time after time as her family launched into space to save this or that galaxy.

Was it that bad, not wanting people to invade her home, too?

"Ah, I think I understand." Coran looped an arm around her, and she leaned against his side. He rubbed her arm and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "If it helps, by inviting others on board, we won't have to visit as many planets for peace talks. More of that will take place on board."

"I guess…" Emi closed her eyes for a moment, trying to envision the ship with other people living in it. It just seemed crowded and loud in her mind.

"Would you really run away if we invited people here?"

"Mhmm."

"Now I do find that hard to believe, though perhaps if you stole Black and took off…"

Emi gave a sad, short laugh and shook her head.

"Darling, if you wouldn't be losing anyone," he said, hugging her, "You'll be gaining people. New friends, new mentors. You're not losing anything except perhaps a few floors of the Castle that we don't use anyways." He reached over and tweaked her nose. "And I'll make sure no one bothers you too much."

She could see her point, sort of, but she still didn't feel like agreeing with him. Still, she was glad he had come to talk to her. "I guess it could be okay. Maybe."

"That's a start!"

"If someone makes me mad, can we let Black eat them?"

"Err, let's not make any quick decisions."

A humming noise came from Black. It almost sounded like a laugh.


End file.
